Healthy Lifestyle

Welcome back and here has to be the most unpopular post on the planet right now! With a title like that, it’s bound to set off a chain reaction with millions of irate housewives shaking their fists at me and calling me out. But whatever they say, its true that doing housework is not only good for you, it helps keep your weight in check too. That’s right, you can actually lose weight doing housework!

How do I know this? Because I’m the one that does the housework in my home and the exercise is actually pretty beneficial, especially for someone who spends his working day in front of this computer writing stuff.

So how does it work?

Well, the whole strategy is based upon not seeing housework as a chore, but shifting your perception on it being a form of daily exercise designed to help tone up those flabby bits while burning off some excess calories that slobbing out on the sofa definitely does not. The disclaimer here is that this may not be for everyone as we’re all different, but its better than nothing and when you put your mind and determination into it, it can work for you too. Here’s how it works for me.

Ok, first job is to grab a CD with all my might and put it in the player. Loud, rhythmic music is essential, just like it is with aerobics. The style is your choice, but it has to be pretty fast, foot stomping stuff, so keep your Brahms lullaby stuff for after… I hate modern electronic music, being a musician myself I prefer real music played by real people and as I grew up in the late 60s, early 70s, I like foot stomping rocking music, so AC/DC are a favourite…

Ok, once the music is pounding the wall, I sweep what has to be swept in time to the music making a big deal out of each broom stroke. If my neighbours could see me they’d think I’d gone totally nuts… What has to be mopped gets mopped with the same treatment. Rough and tough! I run up and down stairs as fast as I can and as often as I can because that’s a great cardiovascular exercise. I don’t vacuum because I live in a house with marble floors so there are no carpets to vacuum, hence all the sweeping and mopping, but if I had to vacuum too, then I’d make sure I put a lot of energy into it just the same. Cleaning windows is hard work, especially the big ones, so I really put a lot of effort into it and by the time I’m done I’m sweating and out of breath.

That’s good and it means I’ve been working hard enough to shift those calories. Some jobs don’t get done every day and so you get to vary some of the jobs day to day, which is good. But every cleaning job gets pretty much the same treatment until I’m done.

Here’s the thing. If you don’t sweat and get out of breath, you’re not burning calories and you’re not working hard enough to lose weight. Work harder!

When you do all that for maybe an hour every day, you soon start to feel the benefit!

Welcome back to the healthy blog that gives it to you straight! This time out I’m going to be a real killjoy and call out soda - yes, the fizzy canned or bottled drinks that everyone loves! Guess what?

Soda is bad for you!

Well, maybe deep down inside you’d already guessed that was the case, but the problem is that television advertising is so good these days they have you believing that soda makes you happy, goes with having fun, makes relationships buzz, brings friends together… ok, you get the way they get inside your brain. Its all a bunch of carefully orchestrated lies, of course. The reality is that if you drink two or three (or more) cans of soda a day, you are staring obesity city in the face and a whole heap of health problems queuing up to get you in the future.

Why is soda so bad for you?

There are two major reasons why soda is bad for you. First of all, regular soda contains far too much sugar. It raises blood sugar levels and makes your pancreas work like crazy to produce enough insulin to counteract it. Over time, your pancreas will lose the fight and you’ll be staring type II diabetes squarely in the face. All that raising and countering of blood sugar levels makes your body store all the excess as fat. Right where you don’t want it. On your belly, that is! This is one of the better known weight loss tips which is to avoid belly fat production. That is dangerous because not only does this make you overweight, increased levels of belly fat is now linked with, wait for it… cancer!

So what about sugar free soda? Surely that is better to drink?

Wrong. Sugar free soda, like all other sugar free products contains artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and sorbitol. Both these substances interfere with the brain’s function when it comes to registering hunger. Yep, they make you feel hungry even when you’re not. What do you automatically reach for when you’re drinking sugar free soda? Potato chips, slices of pizza, burgers, fries, chocolate or candy bars, pretzels, corn snacks, the list is pretty long but you can bet they’re all loaded with calories. All those extra calories add up to that well trodden road leading to Obesity City!

But that’s not all. Sugar free soda containing aspartame has one last health destroying property lurking in the shadows for you. Cancer! Yes, aspartame has been linked with cancer in so many trials and medical researches that you wouldn’t believe, yet governments repeatedly deny there is anything wrong with the stuff. But don’t take my word for it. Go ahead and Google “dangers of aspartame” and read the evidence for yourself, understand it and make sure you can see both sides of the argument. Go do it now, I’ll wait…

Ok, who do you believe? Government denials or your verifiable research and your own common sense?

Whatever you believe, believe this. Soda, whether it contains sugar or artificial sweeteners, will make you gain weight and can lead to cancer later on down the road.

That’s why it is so bad for you.